Wei Wei - one of only twenty Lego Certified Professionals in the world and the only one who doesn’t build lego sculptures - embarks on her biggest project yet, harnessing the creative power of 2,000 children to turn 1.8 tons of legos into a giant mandala at a museum in Shanghai.

A dreamy portrait of photographer Shoog McDaniel, a self-described queer fat freak, whose work with fat bodies in nature transgresses reality.

An artist carves a piece of marble and contemplates the personal cost of bringing his work to life.

This video reveals the resurgent San Francisco Bay Area culture of zines – artistic publications that are self-made, accessible, intentionally tactile and NOT the Internet. We meet remarkable zine authors in their studios, a major art museum curator, and avid zine festival goers and promoters.

A journey through the character and mind of Conan Amok, a contemporary Butoh dancer who takes his traditional Japanese art and personal philosophy onto the neon and gritty streets of Shibuya, Tokyo.

Catherine Opie shares the emotional and political motivations for her provocative and influential photography.

"Couper Was Here" is about an unhoused San Francisco resident, Couper Oroña. She was a firefighter, injured on the job, and now lives with disabilities. She supports herself on a small monthly disability check. After her injury and a divorce, she could no longer afford an apartment in the Bay Area, and subsequently found herself living on the street. She’s known by houseless people throughout the city because of the way she looks out for them and advocates for their rights. She uses the skills she practiced as a firefighter to assist fellow encampment residents who don’t seek medical help from hospitals for a variety of reasons, such as feeling shamed or mistreated by hospital staff. “I feel I have a purpose on the street and want to do my part to help out friends and others who don’t have a roof or access to first aid services.” This film follows Couper in her caring for fellow unhoused San Franciscans, and in her quest to find permanent housing in the city.

A look into the work of underground filmmaker Danny Plotnick and his love for Super-8 film.

‘Disconnected’ is a short documentary which explores the silent and invisible loneliness epidemic amongst young people in the UK.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Sudden Birth* (*but were afraid to ask) is the amazing story of how the Berkeley police department, the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, an Academy Award winner and Mr. Spock are all connected by "Sudden Birth", one of the most unintentionally hilarious and disturbing educational films ever created.

Theo is a teenager learning bull handling from his dad on their ranch.

In the depths of the Brazilian Amazon, isolated communities live hundreds of miles from their local state capital. Without any means to protect themselves against powerful landlords, or abusive husbands many turn to the courts for help. With little access to state services, one judge has gotten creative and taken justice down the river to reach those in peril. Filmed in an area of Brazil seldom seen on screen, the documentary follows the judge and his courthouse boat as it meanders down the Amazon River reaching the far-flung indigenous communities.

A pop culture provocateur and Naked Trump sculptor team up to take down Harvey Weinstein, creating a statue of the disgraced movie producer that goes viral and incites further conversation.

Would you still perform your art, even if nobody was watching? That’s a question Tevin faces everyday.

Guy Hircefeld, a veteran that served in the Israeli military at the start of its occupation of Palestine in the 1980s, now fights against Israeli occupation, ethnic cleansing, and environmental warfare. His only weapon is a camera.

This film focuses on the life of the Haenyo, the diving women of Jeju in South Korea, with 7 idiomatic expressions from the island. The animated sketches also highlight the musicality of the spoken language.

Walking the line between mindfulness and adrenaline rush, an American, bipolar, aerialist tries to reconcile her suicidal inclinations, her past life as an air traffic controller and the pressures of training for opening night at the Vietnamese circus.

3 women who work in a medical examiner's office talk about their work on the Santa Fe High School shooting

Gynnie loves dressing up as a Tie Fighter – one of the many approved characters by the 501st Legion. The Legion is an international charitable organization consisting of members who volunteer their time by donning their movie-replica costumes of the “bad guys” from Star Wars at community events. Gynnie knows from firsthand experience parading in costume at over 100 events how much seeing a Star Wars character can brighten someone’s day. Gynnie also knows the group’s commitment to their community goes deeper than the surface: after her 13-year-old daughter committed suicide last year, the organization saved her from her depression. Her friends in the Legion got her through one of the darkest times of her life, and her commitment cos-play gave her life renewed meaning. Heart-warming and optimistic, the short film Legion reminds us all what it means to hope.

Love Letters to Death (15 mins) is a personal, poetical journey reflecting on mystery and mortality as a response to the encounter with a mysterious collection of tiny wooden coffins discovered in a cave on an extinct volcano in Edinburgh 200 years ago.

MARKED is a documentary that explores the different cultures in Nigeria, traveling to the North, South, East and West in search for explanations and reasons behind scarifications and how they intertwine with identity, spirituality and Beauty.

This short documentary follows Carl and Susan, husband and wife, scientist and artist, as they navigate the challenges of Carl's Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Unable to engage in the scientific inquiry of his prior physics career, Carl finds solace in his basement, dismantling discarded electronics in search of the copper inside. What begins as a curious behavior evolves into an artistic collaboration, as Susan turns Carl’s copper remnants into individually framed sculptures. Their collaboration culminates in a joyous art exhibit, creating a moment of bittersweet celebration amidst Carl's declining state.

Emil is a social media-obsessed entrepreneur in an abandoned Soviet mining village in the mountains of eastern Kyrgyzstan. Tracing his roots to the nomadic tribes that once roamed the area, Emil has returned to put his village of Jyrgalan back on the map by convincing wealthy tourists and famous bloggers to go there on vacation.

The Night Shift is a short gritty slice of life documentary that offers a glimpse into the life of Angelo, a homeless man who collects recycling in order to survive. The film takes place in San Francisco, a city currently dealing with a devastating homelessness epidemic. It follows Angelo through his nightly routine and explores how he has all of the traits of a successful entrepreneur, but makes much less than minimum wage. Even though he is completely destitute, we are confronted by his surprisingly optimistic demeanor, the ins and outs of the underground recycling economy, and the tragic contradiction of a city rife with Tech money yet home to an ever growing homeless population.

Judith Skinner has spent 23+ years on a Buddhist retreat in a studio apartment in San Francisco. The city has changed dramatically over the past two decades, but Judith's routine and rotating roster of feline companions have not.

Only The Moon/ Solamente La Luna is an animated documentary about my father’s immigration story from Peru to the U.S., visualizing his dreamlike memories of transformation through the ‘60s, and what it means to grow old as a Latino immigrant in the age of Trump.

This film is about a Baltimore child who experienced intermittent homelessness but went on to become a world-class symphony musician and professor. As a child, Richard Antoine White (R.A.W.) slept wherever he could, sometimes in abandoned rowhomes where he was chewed on by rats during his sleep. Now in his 40s, he still has the scars across his abdomen. But despite enormous challenges, he went on to become the first African American in the world to receive a Doctorate in Music for Tuba Performance (D.M. not to be confused with the less rare D.M.A.), and not just from anywhere, from one of the most prestigious music programs in the US. Richard is now not only a tenured professor at the University of New Mexico, but he’s also the principal tubist of the New Mexico Philharmonic, which is in and of itself an Olympian-level accomplishment.

At a school in Shanghai, thousands of students are enrolling to follow their dreams of becoming hairdressers and beauticians.

Audrey Candy Corn is a West Oakland native, and organizer for justice. When her son Torian is murdered, she uses her phone to document her own darkest moments. Through struggles with grief, poverty, and raising her remaining two children, the film reveals an optimistic and enduring spirit. Onstage interview and community Q+A with the filmmakers by Otis Taylor Jr. (SF Chronicle). -FD

What is the cost of following your dreams? African American comic book creators wager their health and livelihoods to make it in the comic book industry.

"Tears of the Olive" takes the viewer on a magical journey into the ancient culture of olive oil production. What is the secret of olive oil and how is it won? What distinguishes the olive tree? And what significance does the olive have for human culture? On the Podere Usignolo, in Tuscany, sustainability and harmony with nature are practiced and a special olive oil is produced together with diligent helpers.

A marriage of sound and photos from a Ku Klux Klan rally in Chapel Hill, N.C., in June 1987.

A surprisingly diverse cast of characters gathers every Thursday evening at a defunct airport in Brooklyn. Native New Yorkers and new immigrants, Wall Street traders and construction tradesmen, they come to race bicycles on Floyd Bennett Field’s crumbling, windswept tarmac.

Marco Kyris worked as Nic Cage’s stand-in for a decade on 20 films; everything from Cage’s break out role in Leaving Las Vegas to the blockbuster franchise National Treasure. In Uncaged: A Stand-in Story, Marco talks about his early life as an actor, his journey into the entourage of Nic Cage, and what it was like working in the shadow for one of Hollywood’s Legends of Cinema.

We waited until nightfall revisits repurposed cinemas through hunting images and sounds that trace the practices of belonging still embodied in the theaters’ remains.

An intensely intimate portrait of cellist-vocalist Bonfire Madigan Shive, who transforms her lifelong experiences with hearing voices and suicidal despair into punk-influenced chamber music. Featuring six original Bonfire music compositions vividly animated by luminous images from natural and urban environments, this visually inventive doc-opera radically re-frames the way we think, speak and feel about mental distress.

An animal rescuer in small-town Arizona shares his horses and his way of life with tourists on Route 66. Over the course of one long day, things take a harrowing turn.